Nucleus has teamed with Paradox… hold up, HOLD UP, let’s say it again:
NUCLEUS has teamed with PARADOX
… to release a key release on Samurai. The cover is beautiful, even the titles are light-refractingly-great: ‘Prism’ and ‘Electropaque’.
Time to take the opportunity of this stellar collab to go completely IN about the music, about the beats and include a short Rough Guide To Nucleus at the end, if you’re new to the man.
Sir: what’s a single manifesto that sums up what you do?
Just to make the music I want to hear and hopefully others will. To be original, don’t follow cliches and hopefully it will stand test of time.
These tunes on Samurai are wicked, properly head nodding music: how did you two come to collaborate on this?
We’ve been producing together since 96, but realised we hadn’t done anything for a while and decided to get back in the studio.
I’ve been feeling D&B a lot more the last couple of years and the timing felt right. We’ve been busy and there’s lots more in the pipeline apart from this Samurai 12″.
I wanted to slowly start investigating that vast history of yours: what’s some things you do in music now that you do differently than before. I mean technology aside, how hove YOU evolved and changed?
I think the sounds I was influenced by in the past was more ’70s funk/tripped out fusion/soundtrack stuff, but I feel like we’ve done that and now looking for something different. Probably more electronic but still with a raw edge.
You love beats and you love hip hop so what’s five tunes that randomly come into your head right now that people should go check and why? What’s some details about the tunes?
1/Ultramagnetic MCs ‘Give The Drummer Some’
From the classic Critical Beatdown LP, probably my favourite record ever and it’s hard to choose one track. The whole album was next level production-wise, the way the breaks got chopped, still sounds amazing today.It was a big influence on producers like the Bomb squad. I used to just play it over and over again: don’t get that with many LP’s nowdays… no fillers.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_vSGkS3tCQ
2/Eric B and Rakim ‘Follow The Leader’
‘Eric B For President’ is probably my fav from them but this one takes you on a journey: next-level rhymes from the master as you would expect and amazing production by disco don Patrick Adams, very cinematic.
I couldn’t work out at the time how he isolated the strings from Bob James ‘Nautilus’. Also the replayed bass and horns from Baby Huey’s BBoy classic ‘Listen To Me’ fit perfectly.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evefuDize3Y&list=PLRBu2o2gHu19–p6afbCR0MvNmvqbn3Xe
3/Big Daddy Kane ‘Wrath of Kane’
Kane killed it with this one: him and Rakim were running things at the time, the tunes coming out were uptempo, funky and lyrically amazing. It was mindblowing hearing this for the first time, probably the grittiest, funkiest break ever and the scratches near the end were pioneering with the pitch changing.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbdmGSfdjr8
4/London Posse ‘Money Mad’
Reminds me of the first times I played out at house parties or in a community center. There was a strong hip hop scene in Harlow back then and this was an anthem. Unique bass heavy London take on hip hop.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax5OIlTdwKw
5/Rammellzee vs K-Rob ‘Beat Bop’
I first heard this on Electro 2: it was totally different the other tunes on there, I couldn’t break to it.
It’s a wicked slow, never-ending, funky, dubbed-out groove with crazy rhymes.The holy grail of rap records; if I was going splash silly money on a record it would be this with the custom artwork jacket by Jean-Michel Basquiat.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I56Kkxh_os&list=RD9I56Kkxh_os
Hip hop and rap don’t attract kind comments these days mainly due to the commercial face of it but music is music, what’s your take?
Hip Hop to me was always about being original, creative and making the most of what you have, whether it’s the music, art or dance.
I think it’s the most creative culture ever but the money has messed the music up.
I don’t really check for Rap much now but I know as with all genres there will be some amazing stuff somewhwere you’ve just got to look. There’s still a big scene worldwide representing the elements the right way and I think that is what will stand the test of time.
I still make break mixes cuttin’ up doubles for the BBoys, check this.
So, back to D&B how did the linkup with Samurai come about? What do you like about the label?
Dev (Paradox) already had a release on the label and suggested we do a 12″. I’ve been digging Samurai for a while: I like the diversity and feel there’s a lot of room for experimentation.
DJing-wise: do you go in to the club with a set roughed out in your head or is it completely flexible, dependent on the crowd?
I get an idea of what I might play, what tunes I’m feeling at the time and familiarise myself so on the spot I know what will work well at any given time, but I never work out sets. It just doesn’t feel right. Sometimes there’s certain tunes that you know go well together.
If a young producer was starting out and sort of scared by the complexity and heritage of your style of D&B/beats… what’s a STARTING tip for working on a break or sample? I mean where do you start with producing?
Well, each track usually comes about different but we usually start with the break: try to find a groove that works but isn’t just the usual step. It’s for people to dance to at end of the day so doesn’t need to be too complex.
After we find the groove we go through our libraries of sounds and see what fits.
… bringing it together, how did you start to get into this world of beats and breaks, what were some of the steps you took?
It was breaking and electro around ’83: the whole hip hop thing. Seeing films like Beat Street and Wildstyle and the book Rapattack by David Toop,reading about Afrika Bambaataaa playing all these mad records with breakbeats from all genres of music and mixing tv stuff, spoken word over the top. Hearing Grandmaster Flash and Double D and Steinski’s Lessons, that’s what I wanted to do: just mixing things up in my bedroom, I wasn’t thinking about playing in clubs.
I bought some cheap JVC turntables with no pitch from Tandy’s and learnt to mix and scratch; DJ Cheese was the man at the time. I bought a cheap four track tape recorder and used to loop breaks with a pause button and mix/scratch over the top and eventually hooked up with some local MCs.
When the rave thing kicked off I was drawn to that because of the hip hop influence. The first tune I made was on Brain Records with DJ Raw ‘I Can’t Stop’ on the Raw and Ready EP around 92. I wasn’t really up on using a computer to make beats: DJ Trax who I knew from the breaking days and Dev were using an Amiga and they showed me how to use it. I bought some basic equipment and it went from there.
What are some embed-able entities that you would cite as a good intro to Nucleus, for people new to you?
Metalheadz Organic Beats Promo Mix
Nucleus and Paradox ‘Love Her’
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-nxHfgP_48
Nucleus and Paradox ‘Esoteric Funk Pt 2
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS_y_dpUDzY
Nucleus Breaks, Funk, Boogie mix
Nucleus New Sureshot B-Beats Break mix
And best ways to check you, ongoing?
The Catch A Groove show every other Wednesday 6-8pm on Jungletrain.net. It’s back to back with DJ Trax spinning everything from around 89 up to the present. Stay in touch with links below:
facebook
soundcloud
Nucleus & Paradox ‘Prism/Electropaque’
